You Saved Me
by Lieutenant Caine
Summary: Calleigh's gentle touch soothes Horatio's wounded soul.  Very strong T rating, almost an M because of the distubing nature of the subject matter.


**This is the last of the stories that I will repost during this calendar year.**

**You Saved Me…**

(Reprinted with permission from the original author.)

**A/N This story is dark and disturbing and might upset some readers with its content. When the crime involves a child it should make all society uncomfortable. I give this story a very strong T rating simply because of the nature of the crime involved. Reader be warned. It is not an easy read.**

The entire month of July had been hell, pure and simple. The first week had started out with a triple homicide in Coral Gables and had escalated from there. By the third week the entire team of CSI's was horribly stressed and snapping at each other, knowing full well it wasn't anyone's fault but the criminals who had perpetrated these hideous crimes. Tension ran high, words were exchanged, tempers were frayed and no one wanted to be around anyone else.

Then there was Horatio. Every day he seemed to grow more distant and cold, walling himself off from feeling too deeply as was his tendency in cases like they had just closed.

The victim had been a 7-year old girl; pretty, brunette, well loved by her school friends, adored by her family and now…dead. Dead at the hands of a sick criminal who preyed on children like Annika.

The muscles in Horatio's jaw clenched in helpless fury when he first saw the tiny nude body lying n the alley behind the adult movie shop. He watched grim faced as Alexx gently examined the little girl.

"Alexx, do we have a COD yet?" His voice was choked, affected by the sight in front of him.

"She's been strangled, Horatio. Positional asphyxiation. Her hyoid is broken. And I don't need a sexual assault kit to see the biological on her thigh." Alexx was as deeply disturbed as Horatio.

"Poor baby," she crooned as she tenderly smoothed back a lock of silken hair from the child's face. "You were far too young to end up on my table." Looking up at Horatio she made one request. "Find this bastard, Horatio."

"I intend to." His voice held firm conviction along with tightly controlled rage.

On these cases he always tried to take Calleigh with him. She seemed to steady him, to buffer the emotions that threatened to rise too close to the surface whenever the case dealt with a child. Time and time again, she had seen him kneel by the side of a small lifeless body and softly apologize. This time was no different.

"Give me a minute, would you, ladies?" He had asked quietly.

Calleigh stood by and observed, her heart aching as Horatio went down to one knee beside Annika's desecrated body. His voice broke with emotion as he spoke softly to the dead child.

"Annika, I am so sorry. I promise you, I will…I will hunt down the animal that did this to you."

It was all the emotion he would show, all he could afford to show for the moment, but it was no less intense for its brevity.

Rising swiftly, he placed his sunglasses back on his face, effectively shutting out the emotions that threatened to overwhelm him, and then turned to Calleigh.

"We…have an animal to find. And for today, there is no other crime scene in Miami. Call in the nightshift CSI's for any other case that may need work."

Calleigh nodded in agreement. "I understand, Horatio." Then stepping slightly closer to him, she looked up at him, her gaze seeming to penetrate the dark lenses of his shades. "You okay?" she questioned softly.

A small tightening of his jaw muscle was her only answer, but Calleigh understood clearly. He would not rest until he had brought Annika's killer to justice.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Horatio stared out the windows of his office, trying to wrap his mind around the concept of someone deliberately hurting a child; not only hurting them, but abusing them in the vilest way possible. The longer he though about it the angrier he became, which did him no good. He needed ice cold logic to solve this case and make good on his promise to Annika. _I will find him, Annika, and I will make him pay dearly,_ Horatio thought darkly.

Little did he know that the next 30 minutes would bring to light evidence that would sicken and enrage the entire team.

His phone rang and Horatio flipped it open when he saw Tyler's number on the screen.

"Talk to me Tyler. What have we got?" His voice was laced with anticipation of any news that would help bring a break in the case. Horatio knew the first 48 hours were crucial in finding sexual predators.

"I've been going over the surveillance video from the video store, and I've found something you need to see."

"I'm on my way."

When he walked into Tyler's office, Horatio knew immediately by the look on the tech's face that the news was both good and bad.

"Let's see it," he said, settling into the chair beside Tyler.

"Okay when we run the video, we can clearly see Mr. Legend and his son exit the car in front of the store. The time stamp shows that they don't reappear for 21 minutes exactly. But here's the interesting part. When you slow down the frames, you can see…this…" and Tyler pointed to a whitish, oval blob in the back window of the car. "When I isolate and enhance that particular image, we get this…"

The image framed in the back window of the car Mr. Legend swore he was not in on the night of Annika's kidnapping was none other than Annika herself.

"Freeze that." Horatio's voice was cold. "Print me a copy of that image."

Tyler's hands danced over the keyboard of his computer and seconds later a glossy 8 X 10 copy of Annika's face stared up at Horatio, mute testimony to the lie her father had told.

"Run the rest of the video," Horatio commanded.

Nausea swept through both men as the video played and divulged its secrets. Annika had been in the back seat of her father's car, but had been left alone for 21 minutes, more than enough time for the man who kidnapped her to pull her from the car and disappear from the screen, taking Annika with him. The grainy images showed all too clearly the struggle between Annika and her abductor.

"Tyler, can you get a better angle on his face?"

"Let me see what I can do…" Tyler once again set his fingers flying over the keyboard and the image on the screen shifted and reformed into an image of a man. "Now let me clear that up a little…"

Tyler typed in the final keystrokes and froze the clear image on the screen.

"Okay, now run it through the facial recognition program. See if we get any hits." Horatio ordered.

Images flashed by on the screen so fast that it was impossible for the human eye to follow, until the computer beeped its familiar alarm.

Horatio stared transfixed into the eyes of pure evil.

"Mr. *********, I have a promise to keep to a little girl," Horatio muttered as he pulled out his cell phone and called Frank.

"Francis, we have a house call to make. We've got our man."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The suspect was brought in between two uniformed officers and seated none too gently in the waiting chair.

Frank began the interrogation. Horatio stood by, silent for the moment.

"So, tell us, Mr. *********, where were you two nights ago at around 9:30?"

Good gray eyes stared at Frank and the suspect answered in a dull, lifeless tone, "I was at the adult video store on 10th and Osceola."

"You wanna tell us what you were doing there?" Came Frank's disgusted voice.

"Buying a video." A chill seemed to permeate the air as the man spoke.

"Well how about this video, wiseguy." Frank clicked the remote he was holding and a screen on the far wall flickered to life showing the surveillance footage from the video store.

Up till that point, there was no sign of interest or life in the suspect's eyes. But when he saw himself on the screen, his entire demeanor changed. His eyes locked onto the image of Annika, and he nervously wet his lips. A faint flush spread over his face and he leaned forward toward the flickering images on the screen. The predatory gleam in his eyes sickened both Horatio and Frank.

"I only wanted to talk to her," he intoned, his eyes never leaving the screen. "I only wanted to show her my games, but she screamed and fought me, so I…"

"So you killed her." Horatio finished.

"No, I made her be quiet. I held her head down until she stopped screaming. When she was finally quiet, I tried to show her one of my games, but she wouldn't wake up…but I finished my game anyway."

Horatio walked around the table to stand looking down at the man.

"You kidnapped, raped and murdered a 7-year old little girl…and you call it games?" His voice was trembling with barely shackled fury. "You will never see the light of day nor touch another child again, Mr. ********."

Turning to the uniformed officers, he motioned with his head. Take this animal out of my sight. He sickens me."

Although he had indeed kept his promise to Annika, it was a hollow victory, for he still had one more interrogation to make it thorough without letting his emotions overwhelm him.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

When Frank let Annika's father into the interrogation room, Horatio struggled to control his desire to wring the man's neck.

"Have a seat, Mr. Legend," Horatio said without even turning around to look at the man he so despised.

"Why am I here again?" Annika's father asked, then suddenly smiled. "Did you catch the man who did this to my daughter?"

At this question, Horatio turned around and fixed the man with a glare that would have dropped a charging bull elephant dead in its tracks.

"Yes, we did. But I want to talk to you, Sir. You see, you lied to me when you told me Annika had been kidnapped from her own bedroom." Horatio's voice had become a threatening growl.

"I lied?" the man stammered pitifully.

"Yes. We retrieved the security footage from the camera in front of the adult video store, and imaging our surprise when we saw you and your son park your car out front and both of you go inside."

"So, it's not a crime to patronize an adult store. Both my son and I are of legal age." The man said smugly.

"No it's not a crime, although it is a shame. What is a crime is the fact that you left your 7-year old daughter unattended in the back seat for a total of 21 minutes while you and your son bought video filth to gratify your selfish wants."

He pushed the 8 X 10 crime scene photo of Annika looking out of the back window of the car across the table at the man and watched as a look of sheer disbelief washed over his face.

"Okay, okay…I panicked. We went in to get a couple of videos and told Annika to lie down in the back seat, that we would only be gone for a few minutes. I guess she must have gotten scared when it took us so long. When we came back out, she was gone. We drove around for almost an hour looking for her, and then I just didn't know what else to do, so I went home, called my wife and told her that I had woke up from a nap and went to check on Annika but she was gone, that someone had broken out her bedroom window and kidnapped her. I had my son break the window to make it look real and had him scatter Annika's toys around to make it look like a struggle had taken place." By this time the man was crying. "Oh, God, what have I done?" he sobbed.

"You have made yourself one of the most disgusting representation of humanity that I have ever seen in my life." Horatio said, unmoved by the man's tears. "You'll have plenty of time to consider what you've done. At the least I can charge you with filing a false police report and criminal negligence of a minor, which resulted in said minor's death. That also makes you guilty of manslaughter. I hope you enjoyed your movies, Mr. Legend. Your daughter paid for them with her life." Horatio's words slammed into the man like bullets.

"Frank, take him."

Bitter fury boiled through Horatio's veins as he watched Frank cuff and escort the man from the room. The very people who Annika should have been able to trust the most were the ones who had thoughtlessly endangered her life, had indirectly contributed to her death.

A moment of selfish craving had resulted in a beautiful little girl lying dead in the morgue, her death the price of that indulgence.

Horatio was sickened by the monumental injustice of it all.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The day of Annika's funeral dawned gray and cloudy almost as if the heavens themselves were grieving with her family. Her mother, sisters, and one brother were seated in front of the heartbreakingly small, white casket. Her father and older brother were conspicuously absent

That void in the family picture made the scene all the more wrenching to Horatio. The fact that her death was due in part to their selfish indulgence in depravity sent a shudder through his body that had nothing to do with the weather. He stood a respectful distance away from the gathered funeral assembly, watching and listening silently as the priest intoned his words of comfort and blessing. He did his best to absorb some solace from the spoken scriptures but failed to find any.

Horatio sensed when Calleigh quietly slipped into place behind and slightly to the right of him. Her shoulder barely touched his, but even that brief contact had the effect of partially quieting the agonized cry of his heart as Annika's casket was slowly lowered into the cold, dark earth. Then he felt her hand stroke down along the inside of his arm and clasp his hand, palm to palm. No words were spoken between them. None were needed. The simple essence of her presence calmed, him, wrapped around his wounded heart, soothing his soul.

Calleigh felt a drop of moisture splash against the back of her hand, and turned to look up at Horatio. She saw the single moist track along his cheek where the tear had made its way down his face. Gently she turned him in the direction of the Hummer and guided him away from the funeral. Hand in hand they walked, until they reached the vehicle. He opened the door for her, and then simply turned and looked at her. The care and concern radiating from her beautiful green eyes broke the last of his restraint and he willingly allowed her to pull him into her arms.

A fierce tenderness washed over Calleigh and she held him protectively, feeling his hot tears wet the side of her neck and absorbing the tremors as his shoulders shook with sorrow finally released. Only with Calleigh did Horatio feel free enough to give in to this much feeling, this much pain.

Finally, after his tears subsided, Horatio raised his head from Calleigh's shoulder but did not move away from her encircling arms. He looked down into her eyes and spoke quietly.

"Thank you, Calleigh. You saved me…again." He leaned in and placed a soft kiss on her forehead. "I would never be able to do this job without you, Sweetheart. You are the rudder that keeps me on course when things get rough."

Calleigh's voice was soft when she answered. "You've done the same thing for me many times, Horatio. I was just returning the favor."

A smile slightly creased the corners of his mouth and he pulled her back into a tender embrace. A companionable silence settled down around them, and they simply let their hearts and souls communicate, drawing strength and comfort from each other.

Only heaven knew how many more times they would come to this point in their lives, battered and bruised by their daily glimpses into the awful degenerate nature that sometimes lurks in the heart of humanity, but deep inside they both knew that neither would ever come to this point again without the sustaining presence of the other to carry them through.

**Author's note: I unapologetically borrowed a direct three-word quote from the episode "Lost Son". It just fit too perfectly with this last scene for me to ignore it. "You saved me," is the property of CBS and whoever was brilliant enough to come up with that line of script. The rest of the story is mine.**


End file.
